The Bar Council is to bring forward the opening of the Pupillage Gateway, the online application system for pupillage, from April to January. The Gateway timetable currently runs from the beginning of April (when it opens for pupillage applications) to August (acceptance of offers) each year. From 2016, the Bar Council will open the Gateway in mid-January, with offers made at the beginning of May. This decision has been made following research with BPTC students, pupils and chambers.
The timetable move will have three main advantages:
* It will avoid the clashes between interviews and exams and dissertation deadlines which are a feature of the current timetable
* It will allow pre-BPTC candidates to know the outcome of the pupillage round before they commit money to the BPTC, and
* It will bring the timetable closer into line with those ATOs which currently recruit outside of the Gateway, making it much less likely that candidates will be made offers in advance of Pupillage Gateway offers.